STOCKTON - The city's new leadership took office Tuesday night starting with Mayor Anthony Silva, who recited the oath led by political superstar Willie Brown Jr., a former San Francisco mayor and storied California legislator.

Scott Smith

CORRECTION: Jan. 9, 2013An incorrect age was listed in the print and initial online versions of this story. The error has been corrected online.

STOCKTON - The city's new leadership took office Tuesday night starting with Mayor Anthony Silva, who recited the oath led by political superstar Willie Brown Jr., a former San Francisco mayor and storied California legislator.

Brown said the next four years will be a challenge for Stockton's new mayor but said he believes Silva is ready.

Silva, 39, next kissed his 8-year-old son, Caden, on the forehead, took his seat at the dais and gave a speech, drawing cheers. Silva hinted at a tax measure on the ballot this year to hire more police officers and urged each resident to act as an ambassador for the battered city.

Silva takes the lead of Stockton, the nation's largest city to have filed bankruptcy, while its streets are besieged by a historic level of homicide.

He talked about his late mother, growing up in Stockton and thanked his supporters. He also listed things that Stockton has to be proud of - the Thunder hockey team, the Port of Stockton, upscale shopping centers and the ever-popular Asparagus Festival.

Silva ordered the "haters" to stop scheming behind closed doors and trying to undermine Stockton's progress, and he drew a line in the sand for the city's criminals.

"This is your final warning," Silva said. "You better move out of Stockton now, because we are coming after you."

So many people crowded into the San Joaquin County Administration Building in downtown Stockton for the swearing-in ceremony that many had to be turned away from the meeting room, which seats about 200 people.

The meeting was mostly ceremonial, dominated by stirring speeches from newly sworn-in council members Kathy Miller, Moses Zapien and Michael Tubbs, who followed Silva. But the fresh optimism was tempered by members of the public who waited their turn to tell the council members about their reality in Stockton.

Lynne Robustelli, a resident of a downtown neighborhood south of University of the Pacific, congratulated the council and then told them about being awakened in bed one night in November by an intruder released from jail two days earlier.

Dionne Smith-Downes approached the council flanked by militants wearing black berets and combat boots and claiming to be part of the Black Panther Party. She is the mother of James Rivera Jr., a 15-year-old gunned down in 2010 by Stockton police who accused him of trying to run them down with a van.

"It's supposed to be a new Stockton," she said. "What are you going to do for my son?"

The newly elected council members said in their comments that they are well aware of the challenges ahead.

Councilwoman Miller, the only person to win a second term in the Nov. 6 election, pledged to be accessible to the public and to continue to speak honestly about difficult issues. She said the large audience, media coverage and celebrity of the night were exciting, but the real job of a council member is much different.

"It is not a glamorous or high-paying job," she said. "But it is an important job."

Zapien, who took his oath of office next, said the journey ahead of Stockton will be filled with challenges. The city's long history is filled with things to be proud of, stretching back 160 years.

"I am encouraged by the spirit of resilience that runs deep in our community," he said. "Let us begin the work of renewal."

Perhaps the most rousing speech came from Michael Tubbs, the city's youngest councilman ever at age 22, who talked about being born to a teenage mother and an incarcerated father. Despite that and growing up in south Stockton, he won a full scholarship to Stanford University.

Tubbs' mother, Racole Dixon, led him through the oath of office, and then Tubbs spoke, rallying the audience. He asked if the residents there were ready to work with the new leadership.

If as many people turned out to the regular Tuesday night meetings at City Hall as they did the ceremonial swearing-in, Tubbs said the city's leaders would feel the pressure to fix the broken city.

There are in fact reasons to have hope in Stockton, he said, adding that the city must also collectively roll up its sleeves.